english literature essay

The Good In Blanche Evil In Stanley English Literature Essay

Published: 23, March 2015

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In "A Streetcar Named Desire" written by Tennessee Williams a southern debutante, Blanche DuBois, arrives at her sister's Stella's apartment in New Orleans. Blanche hopes to start a new life in New Orleans after losing her ancestral home, her job, and her reputation in Louisiana. Blanche feels that she will start fresh as the fragile and tender woman, but what she does not realize is that Stanley, Stella's husband, is a macho working class guy who wants to destroy her character. Stanley is a very cruel man; he thinks that he is the authority in the household. Blanche is the protagonist in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Stanley is the antagonist who vows to destroy Blanche's reputation.

Blanche DuBois grew up in a middle-class family, but she lives in this fantasy world where she is better than others. This way she does not have to face her problems and her past. Her psychological problems started when Blanche with her husband's suicide. She was married at a young age, and one day she caught her husband sleeping with another man. Blanche felt cheated, disappointed, and above all she feels she has been betrayed by someone she adored and loved to the extreme. She spits all her wrath, repulsion and scorn in Allan's face during a ball. Blanche's discovery leads him to commit suicide, and it leaves her with a deep feeling of guilt that she will never overcome. So she turned to promiscuity to try to forget what happened. Blanche states that "after the death of Allen-intimacies with strangers was all I seemed to fill my empty heart with" (Williams,118). The lost of her family's home and the many deaths of family members also leads her to prostitution. She soon becomes a school teacher, but she turns again to her sexuality by luring in a young boy. She turns into an evil woman in society, who is forced to leave the school and the town. Even in New Orleans when she got the chance with a young man approaches, she lures him telling him he looks like a Prince out of Arabian nights" (Williams,84). Every chance she is alone with a man she begins to flirt, even with Stanley this in turn leads to her being raped by him. She does not like Stanley one bit after he beats on her sister. She tells Stella "that he acts like an animal and that he is common" (Williams72). Stanley hears this and decides to find the truth about Blanche, leading to her destruction.

Stanley is a very cruel and unkind man to everyone. He beats Stella in front of many people. He also talks to his friends in a mean attitude, and he wants to destroy Blanche. He feels that Blanche is cheating out Stella from their inheritance, he sees right through Blanche's perfection. He tells Stella the truth about Blanche, from her prostitution ways, losing her job, and her very bad reputation. For Blanche's birthday, once again Stanley has a bad surprise for Stella. He gives her a ticket to go back home, but he has also told Mitch about her lies and he does not attend her party. Stanley has class resentment; he feels that just because he is common does not mean he is less than Blanche. He argues with Stella about Blanche in her birthday, and she goes into labor. Stanley comes back, and once again argues with Blanche. The arguing and flirtation leads to Stanley raping Blanche. He even gets into Stella's head, by making her believe that he did not rape Blanche. He gets the satisfaction of winning like he always wanted to; Blanche is sent into an insane asylum. All of Blanche's problems in New Orleans were because of Stanley. Every opportunity he would get to show Blanche's lies, he would tell them to every person he could. He would actually be proud to tell Stella of her sister's lies. He did not lose anything in the story, but Blanche lost everything she never got an opportunity to start a new life.

Tennessee Williams wrote a magnificent play called "A Streetcar Named Desire" he portrayed the ordeal of a woman who wanted to start a new life, but was subject to a mean man who wanted to reveal her true self. Blanche had her dilemmas, she wanted to show everyone that she was of higher class, but she also suffered because of her lies. She wanted to live in her fantasy world, because she felt more comfortable. Yet this fantasy led to lies, and Stanley knew she was lying just to get her way. Stanley wanted to win regardless if Blanche reputation was lost in Stella's eyes. At the end all the lying ended up Blanche in an insane asylum, and Stanley still the cruel man who treated his wife badly.

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